Monkeypox continues to spread in Europe. Around 4,500 cases have been detected on the mainland according to figures from Sunday July 3, three times more than two weeks ago. The United Kingdom is the most affected country, with 1,000 infections, compared to 498 in France. Ile-de-France alone concentrates 336 cases. Statistics which remain far from those of Covid-19, especially since at present the disease has not caused any deaths.
Contamination with monkeypox occurs sexually and through the skin. More precisely, the disease is caught by direct contact with skin lesions or mucous membranes of a sick person, as well as by saliva, sneezing and sputters. According to Public Health France, it takes place “mainly, but not exclusively, among men who have sex with men”.
Most mild cases
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) specifies that people of any sexual orientation were susceptible to contracting monkeypox. “The risk is by no means limited to men who have sex with men”also insists UNAIDS in a press release urging “the media, governments and communities” to avoid any “stigma”.
Monkeypox is a disease caused by an orthopoxvirus. The infection is manifested by « blistering rash, made up of fluid-filled blisters that progress to drying, crusting and then scarring. Itching may occur, specifies Public Health France. Patients may also suffer from fever, headache, body aches and fatigue.
The incubation period ranges from five to twenty-one days. The fever phase lasts between one and three days. Healing normally occurs spontaneously after three to four weeks. The cases reported in Europe are mostly mild. However, monkeypox can be dangerous in children and immunocompromised people, in whom it can « be complicated by superinfection of the skin lesions or by respiratory, digestive, ophthalmological or neurological damage”, explains Public Health France.
WHO has called on governments to “urgent action”. The smallpox vaccine is used to fight monkeypox, which would explain the immunity of people over 50. Before 1980 and the announced eradication of smallpox, inoculation was indeed mandatory. Currently, it is currently only offered to high-risk contact cases. The High Authority for Health would hesitate to extend it to homosexual men.
Racist reflexes
Monkeypox is zoonotic, meaning it is transmitted to humans from animals. However, as the current epidemic shows, it can also be human-to-human. Usually, the contamination is in the forest areas of Central and West Africa.
To avoid any stigmatization, the WHO is considering “change virus name” monkeypox, said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Monkeys are usually associated with the countries of the South and more particularly with Africa.writes Moses John Bockarie, a professor at the University of Njala in Sierra Leone, in The Conversation. Also, there is a long and dark history of comparisons between black people and apes. The name of a disease must not be able to be used to fuel this. »
The name monkeypox seems all the less appropriate since it is mainly rodents that serve as vectors of transmission. This terminology is only due to the discovery of the virus on monkeys, in a Danish laboratory, in 1958.